


Where the Stars Go Blue

by jessa_anna



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Erik is Crushing Harder than a 12-year Old Girl, Grand Gestures, M/M, Oblivious Charles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 23:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1074252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessa_anna/pseuds/jessa_anna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the prompt: </p>
<p>Mutant Highschool where Erik has kind of the biggest crush on the british student who is sitting every tuesday in the school library.</p>
<p>But there is also this big blue beast always besides Charles and Erik think Hank is Charles boyfriend. Misunterstanding are happening and Erik kinda gets an inferior complex because damn, why does his mutation doesn't look cool at all. He wish he would at least have a manly tail like Azazel. No, Raven, no, she doesn't get this feeling because she's blue and blue is apparently Charles' favourite colour. Blue is great. Blue is superior. And all grumpy!Erik can do is wearing blue turtlenecks. </p>
<p>What he doesn't know is that Charles thinks his mutation is reaally groovy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Stars Go Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [noirajellyfishcoffee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noirajellyfishcoffee/gifts).



> noirajellyfishcoffee: I hope you like this! I had a lot of fun writing it!
> 
> Thanks to my beta and the mods for running this awesome fest!
> 
> Title is a bastardization of the [song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT0cndgd1kM) by Ryan Adams. There some other great versions out there, but I love the original.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men, although I wish I did. I'm just borrowing the characters (for the first time ever, but still.)

“What are you wearing?” Raven asked as she quickly walked up to Erik and grabbed his arm. She steered them towards the front door of the school. 

“A turtleneck,” Erik said. He wore one almost every day.

“A _blue_ turtleneck, to be specific,” said Raven. 

“So?” Erik said. They had made it to the front door, and Erik held the door open for her out of reflex; his mother had worked very hard to instill manners in him. Fear of Edie and her general ability to make a person feel guilty for the most minor of infractions was the only reason Raven allowed it. Otherwise, she would rant at Erik about the patrimony of modern-day chivalry, and how she did not need anyone’s assistance to get on in life.

“So you only wear black, grey, and, if you are having a particularly cheery morning, magenta for some reason,” Raven said. 

“You’re blue sometimes,” Erik said, mentally hitting himself in the head as soon as the words came out of his mouth. 

“I’m blue sometimes because that is my natural state, and I don’t always want to make myself look socially acceptable,” Raven said. For a second, she rippled so that her blonde-haired, peach-skinned outside showed the bright blue skin and red hair of her mutant form. She quickly rippled again to her former state before too many other students could see her. Raven only went au natural when she was feeling particularly rebellious.

“Maybe I want to look more socially acceptable, did you ever think of that?” Erik said.

Raven rolled her eyes and then grabbed his arm. She had dragged him halfway down the hallway when her eyes landed on Charles, the British exchange student her family was hosting this year.

“I know why you’re wearing blue,” she sing-songed in Erik’s ear, “You have a cru-ush.”

Erik felt himself blushing and quickly ducked to hide from the view of other students. While he had no problems liking Charles, he was pretty sure that Charles had never actually looked twice at him. Why would he, when he clearly was wrapped in that lump of blue fur called Hank?

Okay, maybe he was hoping to change that. Maybe the blue turtleneck would help Charles see him in a new light. That didn’t mean that he had to tell Raven that.

 

********

 

Erik couldn’t stop staring at Charles. He tried, oh, did he try, but his eyes always found the cardigan covered shoulders and shaggy brown hair of the British boy. By now, he knew what kind of tea Charles preferred and how he liked to take it. He knew that Charles was a science nerd, specializing in genetics, and that if he had half a chance with someone, he would hit on them with the most god-awful pickup lines. He knew the way his eyes would crinkle up when he laughed and how still and intense he became when the discussion turned to something serious or it was something he was particularly passionate about. He also knew that Charles looked best in blue. 

He knew that going to their school had been an unhoped for opportunity for the budding geneticist. Affectionately called Mutant High by the students, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters had the highest rate of mutant enrollment anywhere in the country. Erik had been standing in the street, just off of the curb in front of the school, smoking a cigarette, when Raven had walked up the sidewalk with Charles. Erik had been the first person to see his eyes gleam with excitement as he took in Kitty Pryde running through the front door in front of him. 

From that day forward, Erik was hooked.

“Why don’t you use your mutation to impress him?” Raven whispered at him as they sat through homeroom attendance.

“You think that would work?” he whispered back.

“Yes!” whispered Raven, “Just think about it.”

Charles was a very friendly boy and had, at one point or another, theorized on exactly what genetic mutations had occurred with the help of the X-gene to result in Kitty’s ability, Raven’s shifting, and pretty much any and all mutations he saw among the students. He never commented on Erik’s abilities though.

Erik rationalized that it was because he, more than just about any other student, was not given to showing off. Yeah, there were moments when he couldn’t help folding silverware into little balls of metal, but most of the time he was content just knowing where it was around him. He had always been okay with that, but now he wished that he had some other mutation, one that was far more visible like Azazel’s red skin and devil tail or Janos’ ability to make whirlwinds. But maybe there was a way for him to use his mutation to stand out.

And then Erik remembered that most sacred of high school traditions: The Senior Prank.

 

********

 

Thankfully, it took only a little bit of persuasion to convince Azazel, Janos, and Raven that they wanted to help. Most of the senior pranks done at Xavier’s were good, but Erik’s idea was brilliant. It would drive everyone nuts and maybe, just maybe, grab Charles’ attention. Everyone wanted in.

Getting into the school was the easy part. Azazel teleported Raven in first, to the cafeteria. He didn’t stay, not wanting to be caught on the security cameras, but Raven did, already looking like the night security guard. She quickly took a picture of the quiet cafeteria and then placed it over the cameras. Their school may be a bit paranoid, but the guards were notoriously lax when it came to their duties. She then texted the rest of the group that it was safe to come in.

Azazel teleported the rest of them in, and Erik quickly went to work. He had, earlier in his plans, thought of having Raven slip into the kitchen area through the open window in the wall where their dirty trays went every day, but he soon realized he didn’t need that. Instead, he stood in front of it and quickly called every piece of loose metal to him. In five minutes, he had every cookie sheet, every pot and pan, and every piece of silverware and servingware. He brought them all to the middle of the cafeteria and began to work.

Janos, Raven, and Azazel sat at one of the cafeteria tables and watched, giving their opinions whenever Erik’s creativity got the best of him. 

When he was done, he nodded at Janos. His creation needed to lifted up to the ceiling and there was too much of it for him to do it all himself. The extra breeze Janos created gave him the extra push he needed.

“You know,” Raven said as she stood next to Erik, looking at the transformed cafeteria, “this may be the most romantic thing ever. If this doesn’t get you Charles, nothing will.”

Erik smiled and hoped she was right.

 

********

 

When Erik arrived at school the next day, all he could hear was the whispers. He smiled to himself as some of them made their way over to him. 

_Did you see what somebody did in the cafeteria?_

_It’s so pretty. Do you think it’s meant to be a senior prank?_

_Wonder where they got all that metal?_

_I heard the cooks are simply furious. Whoever did it used all their pots and pans, and now they have nothing to make our lunch on._

_I wonder who did it._

_I heard they might get expelled for it._

Erik quickly hid his smile when he heard the last one. He didn’t want to be caught, but he did want Charles to notice him. Hopefully, he would now.

By lunchtime, the staff still hadn’t found a way to take down the thousands of metal stars and small planets that littered the ceiling. They twinkled in the sunlight and made the entire place look surreal. 

Charles was already at his table and was looking up at the stars above him. Erik had made a perfect quarter moon with a few stars dangling from it and placed it above Charles’ usual seat. He hoped Charles liked it.

Almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Charles turned and looked straight at Erik. Erik felt his cheeks grow red, and he quickly ducked out of the cafeteria. If Raven saw him, he would never live it down.

“Erik, wait!” he heard Charles yell behind him.

He didn’t stop; he just kept walking down the hallway, half hoping Charles would go back and half hoping that he wouldn’t. 

He had almost made it to his locker when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into the janitor’s closet. 

He turned on the light bulb above them without even thinking. The small space light up with a flash, and Erik suddenly was staring into Charles’ eyes.

“Did you do that for me?” Charles said between gasps for air.

“What if I did?” asked Erik. 

Charles caught his breath and brightly smiled. “Then, then, I’d have to do this.” Charles rose up on his toes and pulled Erik down to his level. Erik could feel his grin as their lips met. 

He may get into trouble for it, but it was definitely worth it.

 

*********

 

*Epilogue*

“And that is how Erik wooed me,” Charles said to the large group that surrounded them. They were at the university bar, winding down from finals, and Charles was drunker than a skunk. And every time he became this drunk, he had to tell stories of how romantic Erik was.

Erik blushed and quickly hid his face in Charles’ shoulder as laughter and awws surrounded them. Even after all three years together, he hated to be reminded of his awkwardness in the beginning, of how he didn’t know how to use anything but large gestures to get Charles.

It was just his luck that Charles loved big gestures.

_Dance with me, love_ Charles whispered in his mind. Erik nodded into his shoulder and followed Charles as they slid out of the booth.

The song on the jukebox switched just as they reached the dance floor and Erik wrapped his arms around Charles. _When the Stars go Blue_ by Ryan Adams came on.

Charles’ grin grew bigger. 

_It’s our song ._

_It is._

“Did I ever tell you how groovy I think your mutation is? How I have always thought that?” Charles whispered.

Erik smiled. “You have,” he said. 

“Good, because I never want you to think that I don’t appreciate it. It’s way better than Hank’s blue fur or Raven’s ability to be anybody. After all, you gave me the stars and the moon.”

Erik grinned and dipped Charles. He admired the long expanse of neck and the shaggy curls messed up by gravity. He loved the short laugh that Charles barked out. And when Charles came up and kissed Erik, well, he loved that most of all.


End file.
